UCI Game Lab Enters Into Korean Partnership Worth $1.35M

Researchers at UC Irvine’s Calit2 Computer Game Culture and Technology Laboratory are embarking on a new partnership with Korean researchers that will advance information sharing and digital gaming technology.

The three-year, $1.35 million collaboration with the Center for Digital Industry Promotion (DIP) in Daegu City , Korea will allow Calit2 researchers to work hand-in-hand with their Korean counterparts over a high-speed digital network.

A new unit, the Daegu Global R&D Collaboration Center , will be created in Daegu City to serve as a hub for the trans-Pacific research project.

“We are looking forward to growing our productive relationship with our Korean colleagues,” said Walt Scacchi, Associate Director of Research for the Calit2 Game Lab. “We want to help expand domestic and international markets for computer games that incorporate new technology to facilitate cross-cultural game development and play.” The joint venture will be managed by Scacchi and Game Lab Director Robert Nideffer.

The project will begin with participants improving the long-distance communications link that will allow them – and eventually many other researchers, developers, educators and students – to interact effectively. Researchers will develop tools, techniques and infrastructure that will link the game lab, Daegu Global R&D Collaboration Center , DIP and others in Daegu. With a high-speed broadband communication infrastructure established, participants in both countries can communicate via high-definition Internet videoconferencing and related information-sharing environments.

Then they will focus on heterogeneous game networks, new game devices, and tools and techniques for developing beyond next-generation games.

The collaborators will investigate assorted game networks – on mobile devices and personal computers, for example – that will facilitate playing the same game with similar graphics on different devices. They also plan to investigate new methods that facilitate massively scalable approaches to both game development and game play.

During the contract’s three years, Korean scholars, managers and CEOs will visit UC Irvine for conferences and other collaborations. They will also conduct meetings and informal workshops through the information-sharing infrastructure.

“We hope the result will be a viable, network-based infrastructure that enables game researchers, developers, educators and students to collaborate at a distance,” said Scacchi.

“Our goal in this project is to develop improved concepts, techniques and tools that will support highly effective information sharing and collaborative work practices.”